Islamic State (IS) and Owaisi

Have you ever wondered why these so-called Jihadis, the self-proclaimed defenders of Islam, always cover their faces when committing the brutal act of beheading their hapless, innocent victims?

The Islamic State (IS) barbarians beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians they presumably captured in post- Gaddafi Libya now under their control thanks to the generous support they get from the US and other western powers. The whole grisly act was played out on camera and minutely filmed obviously at the instance of this criminal gang. Each victim was clearly identified with hands tied behind and head bent waiting for the fatal strike. Behind each victim stood an armed person, all dressed in black identical overall with their faces also fully covered. Nothing was visible from head to toe, except a small slit for their eyes.

It started with the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan by a group of Pakistani Wahabis/Salafis some of whom like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and Masood Azhar were flown out of India by the previous NDA regime in December 1999. Again they videographed the slaying of Daniel Pearl, but wouldn’t show their faces for fear of their identity being established and being caught later.

Just shows how utterly coward these presumed brave heart crusaders are. They proudly display the hapless victim all trussed up being led to his and now even her slaughter in many such cases coming up. They rape young girls use women and even children, captured while attacking their targets, as sex slaves. This is the Islam they force the Muslims to practice. They dare not show their faces because they know that not just others even an important segment of Muslim population might lynch them, give them back in their own coin, if they were identified. So these so-called crusaders of Islam sneak behind a veil.

There is another more important reason for that. These so-called Islamists claim to be incensed by the US and the West presumably for its support to Israel. But in all these years, they haven’t had the courage or guts to turn their attention towards Israel even once. So much for their determination to fight US-Israel axis!

By now it is common knowledge that right from the 1950s-60s, when a good section of Arab and African nations gaining independence from the Western empires were trying to move away from the Western influence either getting aligned with the Soviet bloc or rallying behind Jawaharlal Nehru’s non-aligned movement, the US used Islam as a weapon to counter progressive democratic, secular trends in these countries and fully backed narrow-minded obscurantist monarchs of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates and in Muslim dominated African nations. The US succeeded in smashing Soviet Union to smithereens in the ‘80s and since has had a free run of the entire eastern Europe. At Israel’s instance, It now needed to get even with Iran and Syria for backing the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the only force which gave a bloody nose to Israel, and for once made Israel eat a humble pie.

That is when they together with Turkey, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE created the Islamic State. It is now behaving like a Frankenstein apparently gone out of their hands. Yet to date the US/Turkey, Saudia and Kuwait have not plugged the IS’s arms and money supply coming from its sympathisers based in these countries.

All this is necessary to drive home the role of our very own IS, namely Sultan Asaduddin Owaisi, the lone member of Parliament from his party the All India Majlise Ittehadul Muslimeen in short MIM.

Last October when MIM made its debut outside its Hyderabad citadel in Maharashtra assembly polls, it won only two seats but caused the defeat of the Congress in at least half a dozen seats. Had MIM not jumped into the fray the BJP might not have been in a position to form the government in Maharashtra. Thus Sultan Asaduddin Owaisi and his venom spewing brother Sultan Akbaruddin Owaisi, while ostensibly crying hoarse against Narendra Modi in effect helped Modi win Maharashtra and who knows what was the tradeoff?

Actually this is nothing new. Their father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi was no better. In the 1993 vote of no-confidence against Narasimha Rao, the senior Owaisi then alive and a Lok Sabha member, appeared so agitated against P V Narasimha Rao for the demolition of Babri Masjid that during the debate he almost walked from his last bench right upto the Well of the House and railed against Rao (a fellow Telugu). But once Rao gave him prime land in Hyderabad to start his money spinning private medical college, no one ever heard the Sultan roar in the eighth Lok Sabha. Similar game he played first with N T Rama Rao and then with Nara Chandrababu Naidu. His barrister son Asadudin has truly inherited all the great qualities of his late father. So he betrayed Sonia Gandhi in a similar fashion, first by creating an obstacle in the creation of Telangana in time and then eventually going with TRS.

For Modi, winning Bihar has become a major prestige issue. Victory in Bihar will silence his detractors and he will prove that he still possesses the magic wand. After the humiliating defeat of the BJP in Delhi, Modi’s critics believe his spell has broken. Soon thereafter he came under tremendous criticism from all directions including his Sangh parivar fellow travellers over his aborted bid to undo the 2013 Land Acquisition and Compensation Act of the UPA government, with the general consensus of it being anti-farmer, anti-poor.

Immediately after the Parliament session, Modi made a dash to Abu Dhabi, selfied himself at the grand mosque, trying to display his fake secular credentials and rushed back post haste to Bihar to soften the Muslim voter. He also announced a Rs. 1.25 lakh crore package for Bihar to impress all the Biharis. Of course much of it is hype and juggling of numbers, as is his wont. Nevertheless the purpose was to create the hype through TV channels and other media in which he largely succeeded. But he knows better that nobody can be sure of the success of such gimmicks. So, as part of the strategy, other measures have also been taken.

After the 2014 general elections I asked Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, who had been winning Vaishali Parliamentary constituency since 1996 how come he lost. He smiled and told me. “Modi succeeded in totally communalizing the voter. Except for Muslims and Yadavs, all others deserted us, and the more M-Y vote consolidated behind Lalu others too united against us ” (meaning his party the RJD). Earlier elections, Lalu Yadav’s Rajput candidates used to win comfortably because Rajputs would vote a Rajput, and Lalu’s Rajput had assured support of his Muslim-Yadav (MY) vote bank. Thus in the 15th Lok Sabha RJD had five MPs of which Lalu alone was a non-Rajput. Other four RJD MPs were Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh, Umashankar Singh and Prabhunath Singh, all Rajputs. The crux of the matter is that to date Lalu’s M-Y voter has not moved away from him. Therefore this time Modi/Amit Shah are focusing on M-Y. That is where Owaisi fits in. He went to Kishanganj a couple of days back and while deriding the secular alliance parties, (implying the RJD, JD-U and Congress) he declared he would field candidates in all Muslim dominated constituencies, beginning with Kishanganj which has the highest Muslim population density among all the Lok Sabha constituencies.

There are other spoilsport as well, like one time Lalu confidant Ram Kirpal Yadav, now a central minister, NCP of Sharad Pawar, Pappu Yadav and not to be left far behind Mulayam Singh Yadav, supposedly leading the reunited Janata Dal parivar but betraying Lalu-Nitish at a crucial juncture. So if Lalu-Nitish actually succeed in defeating Modi and his undercover agents in Bihar, it will be a remarkable achievement.